The scuttlebutt is that Attorney General Eric Holder is poised to say what has long been obvious to anyone who has the faintest notion about how the wildly failed, flawed war on drugs has been waged for three decades.

The obvious is that the war on drugs has been a ruthless, relentless and naked war on minorities, especially African-Americans.

In the coming weeks, Holder may tell exactly how he’ll wind that war down. It shouldn’t surprise if he does.

President Obama and Holder have been hinting for a while that it’s time to rethink how the war is being fought and who its prime casualties have been.

Their successful push a few years back to get Congress to finally wipe out a good deal of the blatantly racially skewed harsh drug sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine possession was the first hint.

Another is the mixed signals that both have sent about federal marijuana prosecutions, sometimes tough, sometimes lax.

But if, and more likely when, Holder acts on much needed and long overdue drug law reforms, he’ll do it standing on solid ground.

Past surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the sex and drug habits of Americans and a legion of other similar surveys have tossed the ugly glare on the naked race tainted war on drugs. They found that whites and blacks use drugs in about the same rate

Yet, more than 70 percent of those prosecuted in federal courts for drug possession and sale (mostly small amounts of crack cocaine) and given stiff mandatory sentences are blacks.

Federal prosecutors and lawmakers in the past and some at present still justify the disparity with the retort that crack cocaine is dangerous and threatening, and lead to waves of gang shoot-outs, turf battles, and thousands of terrorized residents in poor black communities. In some instances, that’s true, and police and prosecutors are right to hit back hard at the violence.

The majority, however, of those who deal and use crack cocaine aren’t violent prone gang members, but poor, and increasingly female, young blacks. They clearly need treatment, not long prison stretches.

It’s also a myth that powder cocaine is benign and has no criminal and violent taint to it.

In a comprehensive survey in 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House’s low profile task force to combat drug use, attributed shoplifting, burglary, theft, larceny, money laundering and even the transport of undocumented workers in some cities to powdered cocaine use.

It also found that powder cocaine users were more likely to commit domestic violence crimes.

The report also fingered powder cocaine users as prime dealers of other drugs that included heroin, meth and crack cocaine.

The big difference is that the top-heavy drug use by young whites — and the crime and violence that go with it — has never stirred any public outcry for mass arrests, prosecutions, and tough prison sentences for white drug dealers, many of whom deal drugs that are directly linked to serious crime and violence.

Whites unlucky enough to get popped for drug possession are treated with compassion, prayer sessions, expensive psychiatric counseling, treatment and rehab programs, and drug diversion programs. And they should be.

But so should those blacks and other non-whites victimized by discriminatory drug laws.

A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure.

It could ignite a real soul searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war — the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws — has really accomplished anything.

This might call into question why people use and abuse drugs in the first place — and if it is really the government’s business to turn the legal screws on some drug users while turning a blind eye to others?

The greatest fallout from the nation’s failed drug policy is that it has further embedded the widespread notion that the drug problem is exclusively a black problem.

This makes it easy for on-the make politicians to grab votes, garner press attention, and balloon state prison budgets to jail more black offenders, while continuing to feed the illusion that we are winning the drug war.

In an interview, Holder on that point was blunt, “There’s been a decimation of certain communities, in particular communities of color.”

This is no accident. The policy deliberately targeted those communities due to a lethal mix of racism, criminal justice system profit, political expediency, and media fed public mania over drug use.

This is why Obama and Holder have delicately, but to their credit, publicly inched toward a rethink of the drug war, including who it benefits and who it hurts. They should be applauded for that.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK Radio and the Pacifica Network. Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter.

UPDATE 11:36 AM EST — Chris ‘Mac Daddy’ Kelly’s mother, Donna Kelly Pratte, and his uncle told police that her son had an “extensive history of drug use” and that he had taken “speedballs” — a potentially fatal cocktail of heroin and cocaine — the night before his death, TMZ reports.

According to the police report, Pratte said that she had taken him home to recover from his latest night of partying — as she had done in the past — but that Kelly had been complaining of feeling nauseous all morning before he eventually passed out.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that our beloved Chris Kelly has passed away on May 1. To millions of fans worldwide, he was the trendsetting, backwards pants-wearing one-half of Kris Kross who loved making music. But to us, he was just Chris – the kind, generous and fun-loving life of the party. Though he was only with us a short time, we feel blessed to have been able to share some incredible moments with him. His legacy will live on through his music, and we will forever love him.”

UPDATE 1:36 AM EST — Based on statements received and evidence discovered at Chris ‘Mac Daddy’ Kelly’s home in south Atlanta, a drug overdose may have been the cause of his death.

“It appears it may have been a possible drug overdose,” said Cpl. Kay Lester, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County police.

Chris ‘Mac Daddy’ Kelly, 34, of the 90′s Hip-Hop group, Kris Kross, has died, according to legendary Atlanta radio host DJ Greg Street, music producer Bryan-Michael Cox and others in the music business who have taken to Twitter to offer condolences.

New York (AP) — The most polarizing Hall of Fame debate since Pete Rose will now be decided by the baseball shrine’s voters: Do Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa belong in Cooperstown despite drug allegations that tainted their huge numbers?

In a monthlong election sure to become a referendum on the Steroids Era, the Hall ballot was released Wednesday, and Bonds, Clemens and Sosa are on it for the first time.

Bonds is the all-time home run champion with 762 and won a record seven MVP awards. Clemens took home a record seven Cy Young trophies and is ninth with 354 victories. Sosa ranks eighth on the homer chart with 609.

Yet for all their HRs, RBIs and Ws, the shadow of PEDs looms large.

“You could see for years that this particular ballot was going to be controversial and divisive to an unprecedented extent,” Larry Stone of The Seattle Times wrote in an email. “My hope is that some clarity begins to emerge over the Hall of Fame status of those linked to performance-enhancing drugs. But I doubt it.”

More than 600 longtime members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will vote on the 37-player ballot. Candidates require 75 percent for induction, and the results will be announced Jan. 9.

Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza and Curt Schilling also are among the 24 first-time eligibles. Jack Morris, Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines are the top holdover candidates.

If recent history is any indication, the odds are solidly stacked against Bonds, Clemens and Sosa. Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro both posted Cooperstown-caliber stats, too, but drug clouds doomed them in Hall voting.

Some who favor Bonds and Clemens claim the bulk of their accomplishments came before baseball got wrapped up in drug scandals. They add that PED use was so prevalent in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s that it’s unfair to exclude anyone because so many who-did-and-who-didn’t questions remain.

Many fans on the other side say drug cheats — suspected or otherwise — should never be afforded the game’s highest individual honor.

Either way, this election is baseball’s newest hot button, generating the most fervent Hall arguments since Rose. The discussion about Rose was moot, however — the game’s career hits leader agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation concluded he bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, and that barred him from the BBWAA ballot.

The BBWAA election rules allow voters to pick up to 10 candidates. As for criteria, this is the only instruction: “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”

That leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Bonds, Clemens and Sosa won’t get a vote from Mike Klis of The Denver Post.

“Nay on all three. I think in all three cases, their performances were artificially enhanced. Especially in the cases of Bonds and Clemens, their production went up abnormally late in their careers,” he wrote in an email.

They’ll do better with Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star.

“I plan to vote for all three. I understand the steroid/PED questions surrounding each one, and I’ve wrestled with the implications,” he wrote in an email.

“My view is these guys played and posted Hall of Fame-type numbers against the competition of their time. That will be my sole yardstick. If Major League Baseball took no action against a player during his career for alleged or suspected steroid/PED use, I’m not going to do so in assessing their career for the Hall of Fame,” he said.

San Jose Mercury News columnist Mark Purdy will reserve judgment.

“At the beginning of all this, I made up my mind I had to adopt a consistent policy on the steroid social club. So, my policy has been, with the brilliance in the way they set up the Hall of Fame vote where these guys have a 15-year window, I’m not going to vote for any of those guys until I get the best picture possible of what was happening then,” he wrote in an email.

“We learn a little bit more each year. We learned a lot during the Bonds trial. We learned a lot during the Clemens trial. I don’t want to say I’m never going to vote for any of them. I want to wait until the end of their eligibility window and have my best idea of what was really going on,” he said.

Clemens was acquitted this summer in federal court on six counts that he lied and obstructed Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds was found guilty in 2011 by a federal court jury on one count of obstruction of justice, ruling he gave an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury looking into the distribution of illegal steroids. Bonds is appealing the verdict.

McGwire is 10th on the career home run list with 583, but has never received even 24 percent in his six Hall tries. Big Mac has admitted to using steroids and human growth hormone.

Palmeiro is among only four players with 500 homers and 3,000 hits, yet has gotten a high of just 12.6 percent in his two years on the ballot. He drew a 10-day suspension in 2005 after a positive test for PEDs, and said the result was due to a vitamin vial given to him by teammate Miguel Tejada.

Biggio topped the 3,000-hit mark — which always has been considered an automatic credential for Cooperstown — and spent his entire career with the Houston Astros.

“Hopefully, the writers feel strongly that they liked what they saw, and we’ll see what happens,” Biggio said last week.

Schilling was 216-146 and won three World Series championships, including his “bloody sock” performance for the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

Why is there no national outrage about what is taking place in Chicago? And I am not talking about national dialogue…talk.

We retweet the murder numbers for weekends in Chicago like they are scores from the basketball game and then say “Damn, what a shame.”

When 15 people get killed in a weekend outside of urban communities, the national media swarmed like scavengers around a kill. When it happens in cities like Chicago, Philly, New Orleans, and other urban centers, it is just some “ish” that happens.

A headline in yesterday’s Washington Post read: As Chicago’s homicide rate spikes, mayor and police boss defend their new crime-fighting plan. The article highlighted the debate between current and past policing strategies.

Many believe that it is the strategy of the two previous administrations that brought homicide numbers down from the 900-murder-a-year numbers of the 90’s to the more recent averages of 450-murders-a-year since 2005.

But the article, and much of the media I have seen and read about Chicago violence, always talk about gangs and crime fighting. But this crisis is bigger than gangs and crime fighting.

All of the violence that is taking place in Chicago and other urban cities is not about gangs and crews. It is about the convergence of massive and generational poverty, under-education, addiction, a culture of violence to solve problems, lack of opportunity and unemployment, and oh yeah….lack of hope…on a packed city when it gets hot.

Yes, we have to fight crime and address the issue of drug dealing and turf-fighting gangs. But what about the kids who are not in gangs who are just angry and the others who are just scared who carry weapons because they feel they have to, and use them for the same reason? Crime fighting alone will not change this.

We need more large and small programs for kids in the city. All research shows more to do, less violence. We need to see churches opening their doors when we can’t provide expensive opportunities.

We need community members who are not scared to work with former OG’s to have conversations with the gangs members and other young people that are wiling to talk. It doesn’t mean we stop gang activity. It means we increase communication which helps mend broken communities. When you are willing to talk to me and not at or about me, it changes the environment.

Finally, all of us must get angry and active. How can you be angry about Trayvon and inactive about Chicago? We are hypocrites. Change your avatars to the Chi.

Begin to contact organizations and churches like Cease Fire and others doing real work on the ground and start taking bus trips there to volunteer based on what local service leadership and young people say they need.

Write and contact your local officials and tell them you care about what is happening in the Chi. Make the world pay attention not to the crime of our children, but the humanity that is so well camouflaged behind their rage, hurt, and fear.

Yesterday’s Post article ended with Mayor Emmanuel stating, “Gangs will not find shelter in the city of Chicago.” Well, damn Rahm. It doesn’t seem like anyone else will either. Chicago is not the only city suffering. But if we can bring attention to solutions there, we can do it anywhere. If we don’t raise hell about it, hell will continue to be raised here.